The present invention relates to an apparatus for reading out a radiation dose from a thermoluminescent type radiation dosimeter and more particularly pertains to such apparatus which is suitable for controlling persons on the basis of radiation doses received.
A thermoluminescent type radiation dosimeter is an instrument for measuring doses of radiations such as neutrons and of ionizing radiations such as x-rays, .gamma.-rays and .beta.-rays. Usually, a thermoluminescent dosimeter is composed of one or more pieces of glass capsulated or tablet shaped thermoluminescent crystals such as calcium sulfate (CaSO.sub.4 : Tm; CaSO.sub.4 :Dy), lithium fluoride (LiF), lithium borate (Li.sub.2 B.sub.4 O.sub.7), or a beryllium oxide (BeO) and is mounted on a metallic frame or a metallic plate.
Thermoluminescent dosimeters as described above emit thermoluminant rays when heated by a hot air jet stream, hot nitrogen gas, or a mechanical heating element. The thermoluminant rays emitted are proportional to the amount of irradiation to which the dosimeter has been subjected.
It has been well known that personnel radiation dose monitoring based on this idea is superior to conventional film type, pen type, or a glass type dosimeters in respect of adaptability, sensitivity and accuracy. Further the emissions from a thermoluminescent type dosimeter are easily measured automatically. Therefore it has been tried to automatically control entry and exiting at a gateway of a radiation hazard area on the basis of the doses received by persons passing through the gateway, and also to automatically total the doses of each individual person measured every time he passes the gateway where the measurement is performed.
In such system, however, accurate control has not been possible due to confusion between the dosimeters of different persons.